The African National Congress’s surprise censure of Zanu-PF this week is seen as a spin-off from last year’s fence-mending between the ANC and Zimbabwe’s largest opposition party.
During a visit to South Africa towards the end of last year, Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai endorsed President Thabo Mbeki as an honest broker between Zimbabwe’s two antagonists.
This stance was a U-turn from the MDC’s position that condemned the ANC as biased in favour of Zanu-PF because of their historical links as fraternal liberation movements.
This week ANC secretary general Kgalema Motlanthe told a media conference that the ANC was committed to ensuring free and fair elections in Zimbabwe in March and that the outcome was respected by all parties. For this to take place, Zanu-PF would have to create the right campaigning environment.
Motlanthe said it was an anomaly that the MDC, and the largest opposition grouping that controlled some municipalities and a registered party, still had to ask for police permission to hold meetings.
”That, in itself, impairs the MDC’s ability to interact with their constituency,” Motlanthe said.
He added that it was time Zimbabwe’s police became impartial in the execution of their duties.
Motlanthe said, that by raising these issues, the ANC was confirming its policy of lending support to Zimbabweans to resolve their own problems. He added that leaders of the two parties flew in and out of South Africa to confer with the ANC.
Motlanthe’s remarks were the outcome of an ANC policy lekgotla held at the beginning of every year. Zimbabwe is believed to have elicited a robust debate, with no less than 20 speakers expressing themselves.
In the end, the party decided to communicate more openly about its efforts in Zimbabwe, according to a source who attended the meeting.
The central theme was also the need for the tripartite alliance not to express fragmented views on Zimbabwe and to agree on a uniform approach.
Although Motlanthe cocked a snook at the Congress of South African Trade Union’s (Cosatu) intentions to go back to Zimbabwe on a fact-finding mission this week, it is understood the matter itself was not discussed at the lekgotla.
Cosatu has responded angrily to Motlanthe’s remark that its members were attention-seekers, saying it bordered on an attack on the union federation’s integrity.
ANC spokesperson Smuts Ngonyama told the Mail & Guardian that Zanu-PF had taken a resolution at its congress last year to work for the promotion of free, fair and violence-free elections. He said Zanu-PF had promised to pass on that message to all its structures. Similar undertakings had been made by the MDC.
Explaining the ANC’s unexpected remarks, South African Communist Party spokesperson Mazibuko Jara said the ANC had taken stock of its own engagement with Zanu-PF, had listened to what the MDC had been saying all along and had taken its alliance partners’ views into account.
”It was important for the ANC to come out clearly and reaffirm its views on democracy and human rights. We have stressed the need for non-equivocation on issues of democracy. We have to safeguard the moral foundations of our own revolution,” Jara said.
Political analyst Eddie Maloka said the MDC had brought itself back from the wilderness by acknowledging Mbeki as an honest broker. When Tsvangirai acknowledged the South African leader, he simultaneously called for him to exert pressure on President Robert Mugabe to ensure free elections, and that is now bearing fruit.
Mugabe himself is believed to be under pressure from his own senior members, who wish to preserve Zanu-PF’s standing and are worried about the party’s constant projection as an oppressive force.